Egypt vs Uruguay Prediction & Betting Tips - World Cup

Prediction published on 12/06/2018, 06:10  by Charlotte Riboullot | Modified on 18/06/2018 at 04:40 in World Cup Predictions

Uruguay will start this game odds-on favourites to win their opening game of the 2018 World Cup finals. They had a good qualifying campaign finishing second in the South American group, three points clear of Argentina in third but a distant ten points behind Brazil. Their current FIFA World ranking is 14th and they have a great World Cup record having won the trophy twice and finishing fourth on two occasions. Their last victory was way back in 1950 but they finished fourth as recently as 2010. Current form is good with only a defeat by Austria in their last nine games and their last three games have all resulted in wins without conceding a goal. Up front they have too great strikers in Luis Suarez and Edison Cavani who between them have nearly 200 caps and 93 goals. Four of their squad have over 100 caps with another two likely to reach that mark during the tournament, so they are one of the most experienced sides in the competition. With games against Egypt and Saudi Arabia before taking on hosts Russia in their final game, the South Americans have every right to feel they wlll have qualified for the knock-out stages by the time they take on the hosts.

It's a nervous time for their opponents who are playing in their first World Cup finals since 1990 and only the third in their history. They will be hoping that their top striker Mo Salah will be fit to play after the shoulder injury he picked up in the Champions League final against Real Madrid. He hasn't played since that injury. Egypt won their group by four points to qualify for Russia losing just the one game out of six. You can see the importance of Salah as he scored five of their eight goals in the group. Their current form doesn't indicate they will be a major force in this group with no wins in their last six games and they have failed to score in three of the last four. Their most recent friendly was a 3-0 defeat in Belgium and with or without Salah, this game looks booked for a win for Uruguay.